Abstract
Experiments were conducted in which multiwalled carbon nanotubes were subjected to uniaxial compression and shell-buckling loads were measured. A comparison with existing theoretical models shows that the predictions are about 40–50% smaller than the experimentally measured buckling loads. This is in contrast to the classical elastic shell studies in which the experimental values were always substantially lower than the predicted values due to imperfection sensitivity. It is proposed that the discrepancy between the predicted and measured value might be due to imperfections in the multiwalled nanotubes in the form of sp 3 bonds between the tube walls, which introduce shear coupling between them. An analytical model is presented to estimate the effect of the shear coupling on the critical buckling strain, which shows that the contribution from shear coupling increases linearly with the effective shear modulus between the walls. Further, this contribution increases with the number of walls; the increment from each additional wall progressively decreases.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Yu MF, Files BS, Arepalli S, Ruoff RS (2000) Tensile loading of ropes of single wall carbon nanotubes and their mechanical properties. Phys Rev Lett 84:5552.
Yu MF, Lourie O, Dyer MJ, Moloni K, Kelly TF, Ruoff RS (2000) Strength and breaking mechanism of multiwalled carbon nanotubes under tensile load. Science 287:637.
Wong EW, Sheehan PE, Lieber CM (1997) Nanobeam mechanics: elasticity, strength, and toughness of nanorods and nanotubes. Science 277:1971.
Salvetat J-P, Briggs GAD, Bonard JM, Bacsa RR, Kulik AJ, Stöckli T, Burnham NA, Forró L (1999) Elastic and shear moduli of single-walled carbon nanotube ropes. Phys Rev Lett 82:944.
Treacy MMJ, Ebbesen TW, Gibson JM (1996) Exceptionally high Young’s modulus observed for individual carbon nanotubes. Nature 381:6584.
Krishnan A, Dujardin E, Ebbesen TW, Yianilos PN, Treacy MMJ (1998) Young’s modulus of single-walled nanotubes. Phys Rev B 58:14013.
Poncharal P, Wang ZL, Ugarte D, de Heer WA (1999) Electrostatic deflections and electromechanical resonances of carbon nanotubes. Science 283:1513.
Buehler MJ, Kong Y, Gao HJ (2004) Deformation mechanisms of very long single-wall carbon nanotubes subject to compressive loading. J Eng Mater-T ASME 126:245.
Pantano A, Boyce MC, Parks DM (2004) Mechanics of axial compression of single and multi-wall carbon nanotubes. J Eng Mater-T ASME 126:279.
Pantano A, Parks DM, Boyce MC (2004) Mechanics of deformation of single- and multi-wall nanotubes. J Mech Phys Solids 52:789.
Yakobson BI, Brabec CJ, Bernholc J (1996) Nanomechanics of carbon tubes: instabilities beyond linear response. Phys Rev Lett 76:2511.
Ru CQ (2001) Degraded axial buckling strain of multiwalled carbon nanotubes due to interlayer slips. J Appl Phys 89:3426.
Dong L, Arai F, Fukuda T (2004) Destructive constructions of nanostructures with carbon nanotubes through nanorobotic manipulation. IEEE Trans Mechatronics 9:350.
Waters JF, Riester L, Jouzi M, Guduru PR, Xu JM (2004) Observations of compression instabilities in multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Appl Phys Lett 85:1787–1789.
Waters JF, Guduru PR, Hanlon T, Jouzi M, Xu JM, Suresh S (2005) Shell buckling of individual multi-walled carbon nanotubes using nanoindentation. Appl Phys Lett 87:103109.
Li J, Papadopoulos C, Xu JM, Moskovits M (1999) Highly-ordered carbon nanotube arrays for electronics applications. Appl Phys Lett 75:367.
Singer J, Arbocz J, Weller T (2002) Buckling experiments: experimental methods in buckling of thin-walled structures, volume 2. Wiley, New York.
Timoshenko SP, Gere JM (1961) Theory of elastic stability. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Ebbesen TW, Takada T (1995) Topological and sp 3 defect structures in nanotubes. Carbon 33:973–978.
Guo WL, Gao HJ (2005) Optimized bearing and interlayer friction in multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Comp Model Eng Sci 7:19–34.
Xia Z, Guduru PR, Curtin WA (2005) Buckling and load transfer of multi-wall carbon nanotubes with sp 3 intertube bridging. Submitted to Physical Review.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guduru, P.R., Xia, Z. Shell Buckling of Imperfect Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes—Experiments and Analysis. Exp Mech 47, 153–161 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-006-7906-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11340-006-7906-2